About the Coverwall

From John and Yoko to Miley Cyrus, Annie Leibovitz to David LaChapelle, the cover of Rolling Stone has always been an art form in its own right. Now you can explore all our covers, and read full articles from classic issues dating back to our 1967 launch in our brand-new Cover Wall.
Explore the Coverwall »

100 Greatest Guitarists: David Fricke's Picks

Keith Richards

Oeser/AFP/Getty

In his forty-one years with the Rolling Stones, Richards has
created, and immortalized on record, rock's greatest single body of
riffs — including the fuzz-tone SOS of "(I Can't Get No)
Satisfaction," the uppercut power chords of "Start Me Up," the
black stab of "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the strum and slash of
virtually everything he plays on the Stones' 1972 classic,
Exile on Main St. Richards is not a fancy guitarist; his
style is a simple, personalized extension of his teenage ardor for
Chuck Berry and the swarthy electricity of Muddy Waters and Howlin'
Wolf. Born in Dartford, England, in 1943, he was expelled from a
technical college when he was sixteen. He immediately joined his
childhood friend Mick Jagger and another R&B aficionado, Brian
Jones, in a combo, Little Boy Blue and the Blue Boys, that by 1962 — with bassist Bill Wyman and drummer Charlie Watts —
had become the Rolling Stones. Richards is routinely hailed as the
most indestructible of rock stars, but he credits his music with
giving him life. As he told Rolling Stone last year, "You gotta be
a real sourpuss, mate, not to get up there and play 'Jumpin' Jack
Flash' without feeling like, 'C'mon, everybody, let's go.' "
"Happy," Exile on Main St. (1972)